Crumbling Churches

Abandoned and crumbling, these derelict churches are a reflection of the long, slow decline of a once-great city.

They are all located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city where modern America was born, but which for the past 40 years has slowly been paling from its former glory.

The photographs were taken by Matthew Christopher, a photographer and lecturer who works in the city, who has raised more than $45,000 towards maintenance and preservation of endangered sites through his photography workshops.

A double keyboard stands alone, surrounded by splintered wood, the only remnants of the once-great organ in the Church of the AssumptionPews peer out at a grey sky over the Pennsylvania city: The pictures were taken by local photographer Matthew ChristopherThe stoup in the Church of the Transfiguration is dry and empty, and the floor around it covered in plaster dust